The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco) was founded by Joan Myers Brown in 1970. It is indicative of the ensemble’s standing and role that it was one of the founders of the International Conference of Black Dance Companies and the International Association of Blacks in Dance.
Jennifer Dunning, the New York Times’ highly respected critic wrote that Philadanco is “A company of happy, invigorating contrast...a venerable institution...but has not lost its youthful verve or the freshness of its strong technical grounding.” According to the critics the Philadanco dancers are a miracle of skill and energy: they work in an idiom most companies don’t even try to possess. Their dancing shows in all its splendour what the human spirit is capable of achieving if it wishes to express itself in dance. The company performs works created by the most outstanding artists of modern American dance. The rich repertoire includes many choreographies by great artists, ranging from Bebe Miller to Ronald K. Brown.
The mainly Afro-American dancers learned their exceptional skills in internationally recognised institutions: building on their outstanding skills the Philadelphia company can confidently fulfil its mission of presenting the highest level of professional dance.

For the programme see the March 14 performance.

The aim of the performance is to create a choreography in which people with intact movement and physically handicapped persons can come together for artistic discovery and research, to help and learn from each other, in order to re-examine the views they have of each other and their prejudices.
Besides being a milestone in the physical and intellectual development of the participants, this performance is also of enormous importance in reshaping the social image of the handicapped and the social culture that excludes the handicapped.
The Tánceánia Ensemble under the direction of Ildikó Bóta was formed in 2002 as a result of years of therapy workshop activity with young people with multiple handicaps and lack of speech. Since then it has created many public contemporary dance theatre performances that have attracted great interest. The Gördülő (Rolling) Dance Group was formed in May 1999. In their programmes – unique in Europe – all the members perform their repertoire requiring special choreography in wheelchairs.
They are creating a special production commissioned by the Spring Festival based on original music by the Swiss composer Jean-Philippe Heritier, raising the skills of handicapped performers to the level of art. The work does not aim to arouse pity and sympathy in the viewers but to show that the human body and nature can soar without limitations.

José Limón was one of the most influential artists of 20th century American modern dance whose name is preserved in the technique he developed, still widely used throughout the world, and in the still operating company he founded more than sixty years ago. Limón died in 1972 but the José Limón Dance Company, star guest at the 2008 Budapest Spring Festival, continues to preserve and cultivate his masterpieces and legacy.
The dancer-choreographer who moved as a child from Mexico to the United States became immortal as a dancer of magnetic power and an innovative choreographer. His creations are marked by passion, complex lighting, deep morality and social responsibility. His highly polished compositions reflect his image of religion and society and his sensitivity. His Missa Brevis (1958) composed to Kodály’s music pays tribute to the freedom fighters of Eastern Europe; The Unsung (1970) salutes the memory of the American native peoples. The world famous company that last visited Budapest in 1998 is once again bringing masterpieces of one of the apostles of modern dance; the three different programmes also include one work each by Limón’s outstanding fellow artists, Jirí Kylian and Susanne Linke.